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Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP’s 2010 oil disaster.

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Damage in oil’s wake

However, the long-term impacts from the oil leak are much more uncertain, especially with 2011 reports about the impacts to food sources like the gulf killifish fish and mammals like dolphins.

In March, NOAA released a preliminary report stating that bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay are underweight, anemic and show symptoms of liver and lung disease. Although not directly linked to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, the results are similar to what has been seen in other studies of oil exposure in mammals, the researchers said.

In Louisiana, dolphin strandings from 2002 to 2009 averaged 20 a year, but in 2010 there were 139 strandings with 48 of them occurring before the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. In 2011, the strandings reached 159, according to NOAA.